Pacific Rim: The Furies
by Darkpenn
Summary: Before there were the Jaegers, there were the Furies.


**Pacific Rim: The Furies**

_Before there were the Jaegers, there were the Furies._

_[Author's Note: This story is set in the period between the first appearance of the Kaiju and the development of the Jaegers.]_

Eun Park woke with a start, snapping upright in her bed and, as usual, banging her head on the underside of the bunk above. She swore. The occupant of the overhead bunk muttered something in sleepy Japanese, but Eun could not make it out. Partly because she could not speak Japanese, but mostly because she simply couldn't be bothered.

She had been dreaming of helicopters – again. Dreaming of her last day in the pilot seat, facing something that shouldn't exist. Shouldn't, but there it was. Not like you could miss it. Not like it was trying to hide.

She rubbed her bruised forehead and swung her legs over the side of the bunk, wiping the nightmare sweat away as best she could. She glanced at the clock: it was only an hour to the start of her shift. Might as well get out of here, see if the bar was open.

She pulled on her greasy overalls and in the darkness picked her way to the door, stepping over sleeping bodies. There were twelve women, counting herself, assigned to this room, with six sleeping in bunks and the rest on mattresses on the floor. Once, this place had been a ritzy resort hotel. Now it had thousands of survivors from various countries crammed into it. Whoever was doing the organisation had stuck her with a Japanese group, maybe assuming she was Japanese or maybe just not knowing what else to do and having no time to think about it. Eun didn't like it much but, hell, it was better than what a lot of other people had.

And she could not help but feel sympathy for the Japanese, both the women in the room and the hundreds of others scattered around Uluru Base. After all, there simply wasn't a Japan anymore. Or a Taiwan or a Hawaii, for that matter. And much of South Korea was gone. Three hours after the Kaiju had come ashore near the coastal city of Pusan – once her home – the North Koreans had launched an attack. They had said that it was to 'unify the country to better face the threat'. Yeah, sure, of course. But the South Korean army had turned and fought them, and between the conflict and the Kaiju – well, do the maths.

She had managed to get onto one of the last evac planes, an Australian one, and now she was here, in the middle of the Australian desert – damn, she hadn't even known there was a desert in Australia – working, like everyone else, in one of the huge weapons factories. Making parts for warplanes. Had been doing it for months.

The Kaiju that had destroyed much of her country the fourth one, or maybe the fifth, to emerge, no-one really knew. It had taken most of her country's military forces, with help from US and Russian planes, to eventually drive it back into the sea, bloodied but not beaten. So it was still out there. Somewhere.

She left the hotel and walked through the sweaty, luminous darkness to the bar, really just a large pre-fab shed. As usual, she stopped for a few moments to stare at the massive bulk of the Rock on the horizon. At the moment, it was a blacker-than-darkness shadow. Damn thing was the size of a Kaiju.

The bar was half-full. She still had some credits, and she ordered a beer and took a seat at the counter.

And the inevitable happened. Some guy tried to hit on her. She brushed him off. Then another did. Brushed him off too. The third one was more insistent, saying that 'Jap girls will do anything for a couple of credits, or even a couple of drinks'.

"I wouldn't know," said Eun. "I'm Korean."

"Heh," said the guy. "That means you'll do it for nothing."

Eun sighed. She glanced at another guy sitting at the counter, an older guy, looked Australian. He had a half-full beer jug in front of him.

Eun looked again at the guy bothering her. "In most cases, yeah," she said. "But not you. I only like guys who like girls, you see. So that means, well, not you."

The guy gave a snarl. He grabbed her by the wrist and wouldn't let go.

The older guy picked up the jug and came over to Eun. He put the jug down. "You may as well have this," he said.

The guy holding Eun gave another snarl. "I don't want another drink," he said.

"I wasn't talking to you," said the older guy.

With her free hand, Eun picked up the jug. And then smashed it over the guy's head. He cried out in surprise and let go of Eun's wrist. Eun punched out, once, twice, short savage punches.

But the guy was strong. He grabbed Eun by the throat and pushed her back over the counter.

She managed to turn her head to look at the older guy. "Feel free to jump in any time," she said, through gritted teeth.

He held up his hands. "Hey, you just wasted half a jug of beer," he said. "Done my bit, sister."

"Oh, alright," muttered Eun. "I'll do it myself." She brought her knee up, smashing the guy in the groin. He gave a shout of pain and let go of Eun. She took the opportunity to head-butt him in the face. He staggered backwards.

The older guy put out his foot and the other guy fell over it, crashing to the floor.

There was a smattering of applause from the people in the bar. A couple of the guy's friends picked him up and hustled him out before someone called the cops.

"There, I helped," said the older guy to Eun. "Which I think means you owe me a jug of beer."

"As I see it, I owe you absolutely nothing," said Eun. "You got a good show, after all. Sounds like you owe me."

There was the sound of a siren. Shift change. Which meant that Eun had ten minutes to get to her place on the production line. She started for the door.

"Show wasn't that good," said the guy.

She flipped him the finger and continued on her way.

* * *

Her shift was finishing when one of the Admin people came up to her. Said that she was wanted in the office of Base Commander Albright.

As she followed the man, Eun wondered if maybe the guy she had decked in the bar was a boyfriend of Albright, or maybe a relative. Well, nothing to be done about it now.

She was shown into Albright's office. There was someone already there, seated in a chair. Damn, it was the older guy from the bar. He looked a bit puzzled, and even more so when he saw her.

"You know why we're here?" he said to her.

"Probably because of our charming personalities," said Eun.

Base Commander Louise Albright entered, with her usual crutch. She eased herself into her chair as the Admin guy, whose uniform shirt named his as Bellows, handed a folder of documents to each of them.

There were several pages of odd-looking graphs, covered in squiggles and hand-written notations.

"Ms Park, Mr Trent, if you don't know, these are copies of the brain scans that you had when you arrived at Uluru Base," said Albright. "They mean that you have just volunteered for a special assignment."

"Uh, how can I put this, no," said Trent. "And fuck you."

Albright ignored him. "Are you familiar with the Furies project?" she said. "You are now a part of it, anyway."

"What part of 'fuck you' isn't clear?" said Trent.

"You can do this," said Bellows to him. "Or you can go back to jail. Or maybe you might not make it that far. Fatal accidents happen around here all the time, you know."

_Huh_, thought Eun. "I am not familiar with the Furies project," she said. "At the moment, I work on an assembly line."

"But you used to be a helicopter pilot," said Albright. "Which means you know about operating complex machines."

"I hope you're not talking about what I think you're talking about," said Trent.

Albright sighed and levered herself out of her chair. She and Bellows led them into the corridor, where they piled onto one of the electric runabout vehicles. Eventually, they came to a huge hangar. Eun had not been to this part of the base before; it was off-limits to people with her lowly security clearance.

"Your brain patterns show that you both have a capacity for what might be termed extreme multi-tasking," said Albright, as they entered the hangar, where squads of workers were buzzing about. "That is what we need right now. For the Furies."

They turned a corner – and then Eun gasped.

Inside the hangar were two giant robots. Towering. Massive.

"Meet AC7491 and DC8032," said Bellows. "Your new best friends."

"Fuck," said Eun and Trent together.

"This is part of a world-wide project to develop weapons that can fight the Kaiju," said Albright. "As you know, our conventional weapons … well, sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't."

"Uh, I don't want to piss on your parade, but neither of these could take down a Kaiju," said Eun. "I've seen one up close, and they're bigger than these things. Way."

"We know that," said Bellows. "Which is why there are two of them. They – you – will fight a Kaiju together. Two against one."

"I don't play well with others," said Eun.

"Neither do I," said Trent. "Authority issues. Co-operation problems. You've probably read the file."

"Yeah, but you're the best software hacker we have left," said Bellows. "Which is what landed you in jail, as I recall."

"And I got let out early so I could work for you," said Trent. "That was meant to involve sitting in front of a screen and writing code. Not going up against a monster in one of your tinkertoys."

"I am surprised," said Eun, "that you don't have people who are better qualified for this job."

"We did," said Albright. "But they were in Jakarta when the place got levelled."

"So we're the B team," said Trent.

"Actually, the C team," said Bellows. "The back-up team were in Jakarta too. So now we have two robots ready to roll but no pilots."

The four of them stared up at the two Furies. AC7491 had its chest and head open, showing where the pilot would go, hands and feet strapped to servo mechanisms, and surrounded by computer consoles.

"Why didn't you make them larger?" said Eun.

"This is as large as we can get and still have them mechanically controlled by a pilot," said Albright. "There are plans to build larger ones, called Jaegers, using a neural interface and two pilots operating in unison. But that's a fair way off. We're waiting for the Japanese, or what's left of them, to come up with one of their programming miracles to make it work. Until then, we go physical, and tag-team."

"Huh," said Trent. "So the bottom line is that you need us. That raises the question, what do we get out of this? In return for risking our lives against a mountain of claws, teeth and bad attitude, we should get some special privileges."

"What you get," said Albright, "is the opportunity to save the world. And get some payback. I don't have to tell you, Mister Trent, that most of the major cities of this country have been destroyed, even though we had enough warning to relocate many people inland. That should be more than enough incentive for you."

"Meh," said Trent.

"These things are spreading," said Bellows. "There were reports of one near New Zealand recently. They're not going to stop. You want special privileges? How about the privilege of you both keeping your present salubrious accommodation instead of being shoved into the General Dormitory section of the base? I understand that you can get a bunk there, sometimes, if no-one bigger wants it."

Eun wasn't listening. She was staring up at the Furies. It was a chance to fight again. Settle up. Make amends.

"I'm in," she said. "So is he."

"Hey, wait – " started Trent.

"I said," said Eun, "that you're in. Live with it."

* * *

It was one of those dreams that you know is a dream, or the dream of a memory, but that doesn't make it any easier. She had had this dream before, and would no doubt have it again.

She was in the cockpit of the UH-60P combat chopper, one of a flight of three meant to distract the Kaiju – codenamed Wanderer – while the rest of the air force swept in from behind. The choppers' mission was the eyes. In the briefing, it had sounded simple. It can't be armoured all over, can it? Got to have a soft spot somewhere. So go for the eyes. A blinded Kaiju is a Kaiju down. Easy peasy Japanesy.

So the three helicopters had been hovering in position, waiting for the Kaiju to get in range. The briefing officers had said that it would probably move away when it saw them, but it didn't. It came at them in a run, with a howl that made the whole chopper shake, ear-splitting even over the storm of the rotors. Hard to believe that anything so large, so goddamn fucking _huge_, could be so fast. And then it had –

Eun woke with a start again, snapping upright in her bed and, as usual, banging her head on the underside of the bunk above. Out of habit, she swore.

She looked at the clock. It was almost time for her to start her first day as a Furies pilot. So she swung herself out of bed and pulled on her overalls.

It couldn't be that hard, could it? There were computer systems that would help the pilot guide the machine, Albright had said. Once you're strapped in, it will follow your movements, and you can make adjustments with the computer console. Couldn't be much more difficult than flying a chopper, could it?

* * *

"Fuck!" shouted Eun for the umpteenth time. "This is fucking impossible!"

"All you have to do," came Bellows' voice in her earphones, "is walk ten paces, turn around, and come back again."

"Then you fucking do it!" she shouted. She tried to take another step, but AC7491 toppled and went over – again – crashing to the desert ground. With an effort, she struggled to her knees, a process that took about five minutes.

To make matters worse, Trent in DC8032 strode by her. "Hey, this is a lot of fun," he said over the radio. "We should market these things as rides for kids."

"Screw you," said Eun, as she got back on her feet.

There was a series of clicks in the earphones. She realised that Trent had somehow turned off their radio connection to the bunker on the test site, where Albright and Bellows were. For a few moments, at least, it was just the two of them.

"Hey, you don't want these pricks to win, do you?" he said.

"The Kaiju?"

"No, Commander Bitch and Major Asshole."

"Oh. Well, no."

"Then don't try so hard. Look, you're smarter and stronger than me, so if I can do it then you can. Don't think of it as a vehicle you have to drive. Think of it as a videogame."

There was a crackle in her earphones and Bellows came back. "Mr Trent, have you been screwing with the communications software?" he said.

"Who, me?" said Trent. "Why would I do that, Major Ass … I mean, Mr Bellows?"

Eun could not help but smile. She readied herself for another try at walking. Right, she told herself. Videogame. With hands and feet. She took a step. And then another. And then another.

"Not bad," said Albright.

But it was, Eun thought, a nightmare of switches and levers, buttons and screens. In fact, there was no window in the Fury; the pilot had to depend on video cameras. One more thing to worry about.

She made it to the end of the course, turned, and came back.

Finally, the day was over, and she and Trent found themselves back in Albright's office, with Bellows and a troop of technicians.

"Well, that performance was a piece of crap," said Albright. "A Kaiju will eat you for dinner."

"I can walk alright," said Trent.

"Wonderful," said Bellows. "You can take a nice stroll with one of them."

"I want a design change," said Eun.

"Says the pilot who took half an hour to get to the end of the runway," said Bellows.

"I want a window," said Eun. "So I can see out. See what's in front of me. Help me keep my balance, stay orientated."

"Impossible," said Bellows.

"Actually – " said one of the technicians, a Chinese by the name of Sao. He was the engineering team leader.

"Shut up," said Bellows.

"I think it's a great idea," said Trent. "Yeah, we should have a window. You know, I wrote some of the code for the video screen controls, and I wouldn't trust it if my life depended on it. Which it does."

Albright sighed. "We'll see," she said.

Sao looked at her. "Tell them," he said.

"Uh, tell us what?" said Trent.

"There is a … timing … issue," said Albright. "When it comes to combat. So far, you have been in minimum-power mode. That's really only enough for basic movement. Combat requires much more. So the batteries will last for … well, not very long."

"How long is not very long?" said Eun.

"Four minutes and twenty-three seconds," said Sao.

"And then?" said Trent.

"If you exceed the time limit, you freeze," said Sao. "If you switch out of combat mode before you reach the line, you go back to minimum-power mode."

"Oh, that's just fucking great," said Trent. "So we have four minutes to beat a Kaiju?"

"And twenty-three seconds."

Trent and Eun stared at each other. "I wish I could say that it has been nice knowing you," said Trent to her. "But actually, it hasn't."

"Likewise, moron," said Eun.

"And tomorrow," said Albright, "we begin combat training."

* * *

It was five days later. Aching in every muscle, Eun staggered into the bar.

"Oh, great," she muttered. "It's you."

"Well, maybe one of us should leave," said Trent. "I vote you."

Eun muttered a Korean profanity. Then she sat down on the stool next to Trent.

"Okay, asshole, out with it," she said. "Tell me what you do to get this thing to work. Today, we hit the 4.23 mark and I hadn't even got my weapon up."

"Maybe you're just incompetent," suggested Trent.

"Much as I hate to agree with you, you could be right," said Eun. "But there's just so much to watch inside that thing. Pressure gauges, balance monitors, environmental controls. I just can't do it all and keep track of the time."

"Oh, I don't bother with any of that stuff," said Trent.

"What!?" said Eun.

"The techs can handle it. Hell, I wouldn't know what to do anyway, if there was a pressure drop or a … something else. I never even knew how to set the timer control on my old DVD player. I guess it was in the manual, but I couldn't be bothered."

"Huh," said Eun. "Son of a bitch. But that still doesn't solve the timing problem. If I keep one eye on the clock, I can't do all the other stuff."

"Hmm," said Trent. "Okay, you can share my secret. Come with me."

They finished their drinks and Trent led Eun to a distant part of the hotel. Eventually, they came to a narrow door. Eun looked around. Room Number 12 was on one side, Number 14 was on the other, Number 13 was across the hall.

"I think of this as room number twelve-and-a-half," Trent said. He opened the door.

It had, apparently, once been an equipment closet. It was only just big enough for a bunk, with perhaps ten inches of room on the side. You had to climb onto the bed to get through the door.

So they climbed onto the bed.

"After this, I will no longer complain about my sleeping arrangements," said Eun.

Trent was taking something from a shelf. He handed it to her.

It was an ancient iPod. He manipulated the controls until the name of a particular song came up on the screen.

"This music is from an era well before your time," he said. "But this song has a particular advantage. It is exactly four minutes and twenty-three seconds long. I listen to it to help me keep track of the time. And so I don't have to listen to Albright and Bellows natter at me. Once you've heard it a few hundred times, you get to know the timing. You can try it, see if it works for you. I have another one."

Eun looked at the song title.

_Thunderstruck_. By a band called AC/DC.

* * *

Eun and Trent entered the hangar together. There had been no training for a few days, as Sao had wanted to do some maintenance and upgrades on the Furies.

They joined Albright and Bellows, who were standing in front of the Furies, staring at them. Sao joined them, wiping his hands on an oily rag.

"All done," he said to Albright. "As per your orders."

Eun and Trent looked up at the Furies. There were now window panels in the front, made of high-tensile plastic. Not as strong as the meta-alloy armour, but not bad.

And there was something else. AC7491 now had the word _Thunderstruck_ painted on the side. DC8032 was _Hell's Bells_.

"My … orders?" said Albright.

"Yes, from your email of a few days ago," said Sao.

Albright stared at Trent. "My … email," she said. "Of a few days ago."

Trent shrugged.

Albright turned to Bellows. "Make the new designations official in the records," she said to him. She looked at Trent and Eun. "Carry on," she said. She limped away.

* * *

**Part II**

The helicopter pilots had been told that at this height they would be out of range of the Kaiju, even its tail. Hadn't worked out that way. Even as Eun watched the Kaiju crash towards them, its barbed tail extended like a telescope, doubling in length. The Kaiju swivelled and lashed out, the tail smashing into the chopper on her left. It immediately disintegrated, showering Eun's chopper with flying debris. A piece of metal came whirring through the side window, lancing into the head of her co-pilot. There was a shower of blood.

And the Kaiju was reaching for them now, extending its huge, claw-like arms. Eun saw her hands moving on the controls, seemingly of their own volition, pulling back on the sticks to gain more height. She glanced to her right, just in time to see the chopper there pulled from the sky.

It was her instincts and training at work now, and they were transferring the weapons controls from the co-pilot's console to her own. There was a moment when the face of the Kaiju was directly in front of her, those massive eyes staring into her soul.

"Firing missiles!" she heard a voice say into to the radio, before she realised it was her own. She watched as the missiles smashed into the face of the Kaiju, exploding into clouds of smoke.

And nothing happened. The Kaiju shook its head, a giant flicking a mosquito bite.

Then, from behind the creature, a flight of warbirds was coming in. The Kaiju turned again, swinging that massive tail, taking out a half-dozen before they could even fire. The rest scattered. Some fired, but their missiles were no more effective than Eun's had been.

Her chopper was sputtering now, damaged and leaking fuel. _If only I had got closer_, she thought. _If only I had aimed better. If only I had done my job better, I might have saved them. If only… _

She came awake with a start. To the sound of flying engines.

"Quite a dream you were having there," said Albright, strapped into the seat across from her.

"Are we there yet?" said Eun.

"Another half-hour," said Bellows, next to Albright. "The crews with the Furies are already in position. We'll be landing at Singapore airport, and then we'll link up with them."

Singapore. Shining corporate jewel of south-east Asia. And now there was a Kaiju heading for it. And once it had flattened Singapore, it would probably go on to the Indian Ocean. From there …

So Eun and Trent had been pulled from their beds a few hours ago and told that they had their first mission. Intercept and destroy at point of landfall. Sounded easy, when you put it like that.

She stared out the window at the clouds below. Logically, she knew that there was really nothing else she could have done. The mission had failed because they had not known enough about the enemy. 'No blame should be attached to any of the battle participants' would have been the official report, if there had been one. That was one part of her head. But the other part … well, all it could see was the planes going down, her co-pilot with half his head gone, the Kaiju moving towards Pusan. And it saw failure, defeat, promises not kept and home not defended.

She glanced at Trent, sitting next to her. He was writing something.

"Your will?" she said.

He laughed. "Far from it," he said. "Making notes for the talk shows. As I see it, after we've killed this thing we'll be so famous that we'll never have to work a day in our lives again. Just sit back and watch the money roll in. And these two – " he nodded at Albright and Bellows – "will have to kiss my famous shiny arse."

"Ha," said Bellows.

"But if you are successful in this mission, I might be able to give you a few days off," said Albright. "Maybe. Without pay, of course."

"Let me ask you something," said Eun to Trent. "Have you ever actually seen a Kaiju?"

"Of course not," he said. "But plenty of pictures and things. And we've done the combat simulations and training. I mean, how hard can it be to kill one? They're just animals, after all."

"Great," muttered Eun. "Fucking wonderful."

The plane landed and a military helicopter took them to the northern edge of the island, where _Thunderstruck_ and _Hell's Bells_ were being given their final prep.

This part of the island was a large patch of open, sandy land, part of the Singapore government's ongoing plan to expand the island through land reclamation. The area had been filled some years before but was still to be declared stable enough for construction. The edge of the city was a few kilometres away. Some of the population – those who could afford to buy their way into another country – had been evacuated but most were in underground shelters. Like that would be much help when the whole place started to come down.

The Furies had been fitted with their weapons. Attached to the left arm was a machine gun. It had thirty 'bullets', each the size of a car and packed with explosives, in a bandolier strap that ran across the Fury's back. On the right arm was an extendable knife: if the Fury had been the size of a man, the blade would have been about twelve inches long.

"We'll be in the helicopter, watching you the whole time," said Albright. "So all you have do is follow orders. Got that?"

"Yeah, 'cos that always works," said Eun.

The plan was to have the two Furies a distance apart, so when the Kaiju went for one the other could attack it from behind. That was the plan.

Eun and Trent were taken up to the cockpits of the Furies on the elevators and were strapped in. Albright, Bellows, Sao and the others got into the helicopter and flew to a safe distance.

"We're tracking the Kaiju by satellite, and we're pretty sure it's going to come ashore right between you," said Bellows over the radio. "Don't switch to combat mode until the last possible moment."

"Ah, some images of the Kaiju have just come in," said Albright. "Transferring them to you now."

An image came up on Eun's computer screen.

She gasped.

Wanderer.

It was fucking Wanderer.

"I can tell you right now," she said into the radio, "that this attack-from-behind idea isn't going to work. Its major weapon is its tail."

"Doesn't look that dangerous," said Albright. "So stay with the plan."

"Anyway, how would you know?" said Bellows.

"Because we're old friends," said Eun.

At that moment, a wave broke onto the shore. There was a tremor through the ground. And then another. And then another.

And then Wanderer waded out of the water and onto the beach. It looked around and gave a howl.

"Weapons hot and prepare to switch to combat mode," said Albright.

"Watch the coolant pressure and the temperature monitors," said Sao.

"And don't forget to – " started Bellows.

Eun turned them off. She put the iPod plugs in her ears.

"Damn, I hate this song," she muttered to herself. She opened the channel to Trent.

"Hey, asshole, get ready," she said to him.

She heard him whisper: "Fuck me. It's … it's … "

"Yeah, it's big, I know," she said. "Watch out for the tail, it gets a lot longer when it's fighting."

Silence.

"Trent?" she said.

Nothing.

_Goddamn_, she thought.

The Kaiju had begun to move. Towards _Hell's Bells_. Slowly at first, but with increasing speed.

"Trent!" shouted Eun. "Go to combat mode! Now! It's coming right for you!"

"I … I … I can't … "

"Fuck!" said Eun to herself. She punched the button to switch to combat mode and hit the control on the iPod. A guitar riff began.

4.23. And counting.

She began to run. Faster. She saw the Kaiju's tail extend.

"Trent, get your fucking gun up!" she shouted. "Or move! Do fucking something!"

But _Hell's Bells_ was just standing there, immobile. Frozen.

The Kaiju was almost on him when Eun caught up. She grabbed the Wanderer's tail as it whipped around and pulled. Then, with all her strength, she swivelled and flung the creature through the air, back down the beach.

It smashed into the ground and rolled, but was up again in a moment. It charged at her.

3.49.

She lifted the arm with the gun and fired. The explosive bullets whacked into the Kaiju. _Boomboomboom – _

And then nothing. Jammed. After nine shots.

The Kaiju ploughed into her, swinging her around. She managed to get an arm free and punched out, smashing into the creature's jaw. It fell back a step.

And looked at her.

"Yeah, that's right, fucker," she said. "Me. The one who spat in your face."

Wanderer charged again. Eun swung the arm with the now-useless gun, to use it as a club. But the Kaiju blocked the blow, grabbing hold of the arm, and smashed out, knocking _Thunderstruck _down. Eun managed to get to her knees but the Kaiju wrapped her in a deadly embrace.

3.21.

Inside the cockpit, lights began to flash red. There was the sound of metal tearing. The video screens went dark.

"Trent," said Eun. "I … need you … help me … please … "

And then, suddenly, Wanderer was away from her, being pulled back. Trent had his knife extended and was stabbing it, again and again, and punching with his other fist.

The Kaiju's tail flashed around, cutting into _Hell's Bells _leg. The Fury fell back a few steps, and went down onto one knee, the other leg gushing hydraulic fluid.

Eun struggled to her feet. She realised that _Thunderstruck's_ left arm was useless, crushed. She needed another weapon.

She had an idea. She searched for the control, and then found it: _Emergency eject cartridge strap._

The strap with the bullets fell from her back. She picked it up with her good arm.

2.39.

She swung it, and caught Wanderer across the face. And then again. And then again. The Kaiju fell back, howling in something that might have been pain.

She smashed into the Kaiju with the strap again, but this time it caught it in its mouth. Wanderer tore the strap from Eun's hand.

Trent's voice, quite soft: "Down."

She dived aside.

_Boomboomboomboomboom – _

_Hell's Bells_ was still on one knee but was firing. The bullets were smashing into the Kaiju's chest, and it was bleeding. But it was a long way from going down.

1.41.

That tail was whipping up again, preparing to strike. Eun leaped for it, grabbing it and holding it down. She extended the knife, and drove it through Kaiju flesh, pinning the tail to the ground. And then the blade broke.

She rolled away and struggled to her feet once more.

"Fuck, this thing is tough," said Trent. "Twenty-five bullets and it's still up."

"I'm on the last verse," said Eun.

The Kaiju had managed to rip itself free from the knife, although its tail was now shredded, gushing blood. It came charging at them again.

Eun launched herself at it. There was a crash as muscle met steel. With her right fist, she punched, and punched, and punched.

But Wanderer had its claws around her again, and was squeezing. This time, it meant to finish her. Eun could hear supports collapsing and cables snapping.

0.59.

She could feel her blows getting weaker. And she realised that Trent could not fire for fear of hitting her.

She looked up. She realised that the ammunition belt was still in Wanderer's mouth.

"Trent!" she shouted into the radio. "Fire! At its head! Aim for the bullets!"

"You're too close!" he shouted back. "If they go up – "

"Just do it!"

0.28.

_Boomboomboom – _

With a final effort, she broke out of the Kaiju's grip and threw herself down.

There was a shattering roar as the shells in the strap exploded, all at once.

Slowly, Wanderer staggered backwards, half of its head gone. It tottered. Then, like an avalanche, it crashed to the ground, face-down.

0.2.

Eun switched out of combat mode as the last chords died away. She got to her feet and staggered to Trent, running on minimum-power now. With her remaining good arm, she helped him up. Together, they hobbled back to the Kaiju. They looked down at it. There was smoke and liquid streaming from its skull.

And then it twitched. It started to move.

"Damn thing just won't die," said Trent. "Must have a second brain somewhere."

"Got any bullets left?" she said.

"Nope," he said. "But I've got this." He held up the knife.

She helped him kneel, and he plunged the blade into the back of the Kaiju's neck. Then he pulled it down, along the spine.

Finally, the twitching stopped.

Eun kicked it in the side. "Payback's a bitch," she said to it. "Fuck you. Fuck all of you."

She looked down at the dead Kaiju. She had a feeling that she wouldn't have any more bad dreams about it.

They popped the hatches and climbed down the emergency ladders. They were both bruised, shaken, and exhausted.

By the time they had reached the ground, Albright's helicopter had landed.

Bellows came storming up to them, Albright limping behind.

"And just what the fuck was that all about!?" he shouted. "Why the hell didn't you obey your orders!?" He leaned forward into Eun's face, snarling.

And she head-butted him. There was the sound of a nose breaking. He howled in pain.

"Outstanding," said Trent.

Albright came up to them. She glanced at the blood streaming down Bellows' face, and then at Eun and Trent.

"Speaking for myself – and this is an entirely unofficial opinion – I thought you did alright," she said. "Not too bad at all."

"As if we fucking care what you think," said Eun.

The two of them started to walk towards the city.

"Think there are any bars open in Singapore?" said Eun.

"Hope so," said Trent. "Because you still owe me a beer."

"Bullshit," said Eun. "You owe me one."

"Well, how about this then," said Trent. "I buy the first round, you buy the second. Deal?"

"Deal," said Eun.

END


End file.
